The particular shape of a cue tip desired by a pool player can vary considerably from, for example, a relatively gently sloped surface to a more conical shape. Additionally, the shape of a cue tip becomes more critical with more experienced pool players and an experienced pool player will dress his cue tip frequently to insure that it is maintained in the shape that he desires.
In this regard he might use a piece of sandpaper or a knife, although various other types of cue dressers are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 259,136; 284,548; 1,534,975 and 2,577,995.
The difficulty with dressers of the general type shown in these patents is that they are usually adapted to impart only a single configuration to a cue tip, so that specially shaped dressing surfaces or elements must be manufactured for each cue tip style desired or only an approximation of the desired shape can be attained.
The above noted U.S. Pat. No. 284,548 attempts to obviate this problem by providing a number of recesses, six to twelve are shown, each having a different shape. The difficulty with this latter type of dresser is that it must necessarily be larger than desirable for individual use, particularly for use by a player during the course of a game.